Delusional Nashville anthem singer upset over country stars
One of the coolest things about the Nashville Predators’ Stanley Cup Playoff run is that a galaxy of country music stars are on the bandwagon. Some have been there for years. Some are new to Smashville fandom. At least one has a husband on the team.
Loaded with that kind of star talent, the Predators have been doing a thing at home games where they’re not revealing who sings the anthem until they walk out on the ice. So Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan and Lady Antebellum have been among the surprise guests. Everyone really digs it. Everyone except Dennis K. Morgan.
Dennis K. Morgan, 53, is the Predators’ usual anthem singer, and has performed about 185 times since 2000. Nashville has played 639 regular-season home games since 2000, plus a few dozen more playoff games.
Anyway, Dennis K. Morgan – the ‘K’ is there because he requested the Predators refer to him as such, to lessen confusion with other Dennis Morgans – is a little salty because all of these really famous people are thrilling fans in a pregame ceremony and none of them are Dennis K. Morgan.
“I’m not going to hide my disappointment and I told the Predators that I have been asked the same question over and over and it’s just really getting old,” Morgan said.
We’re assuming this question is “can you introduce us to Lady Antebellum?”
We continue:
“Everywhere I go — obviously at my day job (as a healthcare IT recruiting manager) and at (Bridgestone) arena as well as everywhere else I go to church, grocery stores, on the street, in meetings and in restaurants — people want to know how I feel.”
Luckily The Tennessean was able to provide such a platform.
So how do you feel, Dennis K. Morgan?
“They came to me and said the captain’s (Mike Fisher) wife asked to sing the anthem that night,” Morgan said. “It was presented to me as a one night only kind of thing and I agreed to it. Then they continued to bring in these other singers and touted them as ‘A-listers,’ which kind of hurt me.”
At this point we must mention that Carrie Underwood, a.k.a. “The Captain’s Wife,” has sold 65 million records worldwide.
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Dennis K. Morgan, meanwhile, needed the Predators to add an initial to his name so people could tell him apart from another Dennis Morgan in Nashville.
We continue:
Morgan said he informed Predators senior director of broadcast and entertainment Bob Kohl that he planned to tell The Tennessean about his disappointment by the decision to replace him in the playoffs and was given a thumbs-up.
Wait, what?
Did the Nashville anthem singer, whose gig was suddenly usurped by a gaggle of country stars, whose usual appearance fees could probably pay for a backup goalie, threaten to go to the press? And then did so after the Predators, fully understanding how ridiculous this would sound, allowed him to?
This is like when that dude tried to blackmail Bruce Wayne in “The Dark Knight.”
We continue:
“The Predators said they understood my disappointment and that they had even been hearing the same thing,” Morgan said.
Can someone legitimately disappointed that Carrie Underwood sang the national anthem instead of Dennis K. Morgan please email us at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com to let us know you exist outside the mind of Dennis K. Morgan?
OK then. We continue:
“I don’t blame Carrie Underwood or Luke Bryan or any of the other acts who have performed,” Morgan said.
Excuse me sir, that’s “The Captain’s Wife” to you.
“I’ve been as good-natured as I can be. With my closest friends, I’ve certainly shared my disappointment. But most of the time I’ll toe the company line and say, ‘Why am I not singing? Because I don’t have seven Grammys,
Yes.
“I’m not married to the captain,”
OK, now we’re back on track.
“She’s a whole lot prettier than me,’
I mean, we’re not one to judge but…
that kind of thing and try to leave it at that.”
What, and stop short of “that dang feminism?”
Dennis K. Morgan, who it should be said wears a personalized jersey with a [expletive] music note on the back, is two years away from celebrating 25 years as an NHL anthem singer, having previously performed with the Dallas Stars.
But he tells The Tennessean that he’s not sure if he’s going to hit that mark with the Predators after they way they mistreated him this postseason.
“I’ll have to do some soul-searching over the summer because it has been kind of insulting,” he said.
The Predators were contacted by the paper and released a statement:
“We have always valued Dennis K. Morgan’s performance of the national anthem at Predators’ home games. Our arrangement with him has always allowed for nationally and internationally renowned musical artists to perform when available to further enhance our game experience while paying respect to our country through their respective awe-inspiring renditions of the national anthem. The reaction from our fans in Bridgestone Arena as well as from around the country to seeing and hearing world class performers such as Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan, Vince Gill and his daughters, Little Big Town and Lady Antebellum during the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs has been overwhelmingly positive, bringing national and international exposure to our community while continuing to set our game experience and atmosphere apart from others in professional sports.”
Sure, that’s all well and good, but it ISN’T STOPPING PEOPLE FROM ASKING DENNIS K. MORGAN AT THE SUPERMARKET WHY HE ISN’T SINGING IN THE WESTERN CONFERENCE FINAL, YOU MONSTERS.
Which is, of course, the most important thing there.
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Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.
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